As someone who has worked at MaxPreps for 17 years, a life-long youth sports participant or coach, a youth sports advocate, and now a parent with a child playing high school basketball, I have seen firsthand the outrageous behavior of parents at youth basketball games.
It's absolutely mind-boggling how these parents think they can just berate and disrespect the officials without any consequences. Do they not realize that these are just kids trying to play a game? Do they not understand the impact of their actions on the players and the game itself?
It's time for these parents to wake up and realize the harm they are causing. By constantly yelling at and berating the officials, they are not only ruining the experience for their own child, but for every other player on the court as well. They are also contributing to the decline in the number of good officials, as many of them have simply had enough of the abuse and have chosen to leave the sport. We are close to a point where we do not have refs and the games will be called by parents or players. We have already seen this happening in a lot of areas.
So here's my message to these crazy parents: lay off the officials! If you really care about your child's basketball experience, then you should be cheering them on and supporting them, not tearing down the officials. Let the coaches handle the officials. And if you can't control yourself, then maybe it's time to step up and referee. If the officials are so bad, get out and do it yourself. We could all use more good officials, and apparently there a lot of great referees sitting in the bleachers.
It's time to show some respect and make youth basketball a fun and positive experience for everyone involved.
